Old music: Cocteau Twins – Crushed

Created for record label 4AD's compilation of some of its finest artists circa 1987 – Lonely is An Eyesore – Cocteau Twins' Crushed is among my favourite tracks from a band that changed the musical landscape, and have never been equalled. The accompanying VHS release of that album also offered a rare chance to own visual "proof" of this ethereal trio's existence. The video glistens at you, with the band appearing like aliens in the mist, fresh from whatever spaceship they'd been in that day. Hands move across instruments out of time, displaced from their own creations, as if the music itself has been set free from any form of governance. Liz Fraser's unnerving eyes take on even more profound depths of ungraspable poignancy, rendering any attempt at understanding the words coming out of her mouth pointless (yet I am reliably informed they are thus: "Fein Funnel Fresh aches/ Honey they're losing me/thistle follow/ Will he see a ya ya ya ya/thistle fresh aches". All I can say is - I hope not).

How can a song begin by sounding so much like an ending? And not just any ending – the end of everything. But in a beautiful, resigned way. And how could something that doesn't tell you anything at all convey so much? These thoughts loop around my head every time I listen to Crushed.

What's remarkable, as ever, is that as soon as Liz Fraser starts to sing, you know what she's on about. And yet of course you don't; but the fact you think you do is an impressive feat. Her singing at the start of this makes me feel she's accepted something not particularly pleasant. And although she's going to plead for things to be different for the next three minutes, she knows that whatever it is that has drawn her to take this journey, it's never going to change. Yet the coruscating guitar would beg to differ; from a fairly melancholy bent at the beginning, it sparkles towards greater heights with each upward-thrusting chord change, until some form of ecstasy is reached that then dissolves into the ether. Perhaps this is why we see Liz laughing so hysterically at the end of the video, at the sheer absurdity of juxtaposition. Or most probably not. If I really knew, I might have lost interest years ago.

I once read that Liz Fraser stopped writing comprehensible lyrics after the first Cocteau Twins album got a slating for its lyrical content. I don't really understand (or believe) that. If someone chose to decipher the lyrics on that deliciously weird piece of vinyl, let alone criticise them, I wish them well, but they're not for me. This band is about feeling, not necessarily understanding, and while "Fein Funnel Fresh aches" might hold some resonance for some, I prefer the whole delicious experience of this song to any form of lyrical epiphany.

I had a dream in my mid-teens that I had uncovered the secret to Cocteau Twins' lyrics – any word that ended with an "E" had the E taken off and placed at the start. I woke up elated that I'd finally worked it out. Then I felt miserable, because the mystery was no longer there. Thank Robin, Liz and Simon it was just a dream. And long may they all, in their various current careers, continue to shine so brilliantly.